Tompkins
October 2026
About
Overview
Tompkins Campground is on the north shore of Cowanesque Lake in the northern tier of Pennsylvania, less than one mile from the New York state border.
Surrounded by lush forested ridges, the lake offers recreation for the entire family, including picnicking, swimming, boating, fishing, hiking, hunting and wildlife watching. The campground is a great place for kids of any age.
Recreation
Cowanesque Lake offers a variety of outdoor activities. With a boat ramp and overnight mooring, campers can easily spend time on the water.
There are a variety of indigenous fish that inhabit the area's streams and lakes, and fishing tournaments are held frequently. The North and South Tailrace areas provide access for fishing downstream of Cowanesque Dam.
The fields and forests around the lakes are popular destinations for both local and out-of-state hunters looking for large and small game species native to the eastern hardwood forests.
The 4 mile Moccasin Trail within the facility leads hikers on a trek through reclaimed farm fields and wood lots inhabited by a variety of watchable wildlife.
Facilities
Tompkins has a variety of shoreline sites, most of which have electric hookups. The campground includes 109 traditional campsites and, 16 tent only hike-in sites.
A boat ramp, drinking water, hot showers, playgrounds and a dump station are also provided. There are two overlooks and two downstream fishing access points.
Natural Features
The partially forested campground sits in the pristine setting of the Endless Mountains region of Pennsylvania, along the Allegheny Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains. The surrounding land paints a scenic picture of rolling mountains and open fields.
Charges & Cancellations
Reservations to include any reservation changes, such as cancel, refund requests, site transfer, or date changes cannot be made at facility location.
Amenities
Is TOMPKINS fully booked?
A campground showing no availability is almost never full for good. People cancel — plans change, weather turns, someone books three weekends and keeps one — and the site goes straight back into the booking system, usually without warning and often at odd hours. The reason sold-out campgrounds feel impossible is not that sites never free up; it is that nobody is watching at the moment they do.
CampHawk watches TOMPKINS in Tioga, PA for you. We recheck it every 15 seconds, around the clock, and the moment a site opens we send a text, an email and a push notification — and on Recreation.gov we can put the site straight into your cart, so it is held while you get to your phone.
Searching is free and needs no account — the calendar above is live right now. Watching TOMPKINS for cancellations is the paid part.